briankeery

Hello All,


I just wanted to share my experience with my carb rebuild with Lars. As most of us can attest, the man has forgotten more about carburetors, than most of us will ever know.


I emailed Lars a little over a month ago to start this process. For those of you unsure about doing this, let me tell you the process was very easy - even from a foreign country.


Lars' instructions were very straight forward and easy to follow. My carb was boxed up, as per his directions, and shipped to Colorado. I received an email about a week later, informing me that everything had arrived safely and that an initial inspection/ identification had occurred. I was also informed I was #8 in line.


About 2 weeks passed, with a few more emails to let me know I was moving up the line. This is where the story gets good......


This is a copy of the email I received from Lars the day he started work on my "original" carb that had come in a box when I bought my '79.


........................................ .................
Mar 28
Brian -
I don't know how you did it, but it appears you have salvaged the original carburetor off the Titanic..! In my 35 years of building carbs, and after having built over 700 Q-Jets, I can say without any doubt that this is hands-down the worst carb I have ever seen. I've never seen one so corroded and so messed up by a commercial builder. I had to disassemble the carb with a torch, a grinder and a cutoff wheel. Parts of the carb were so corroded that they were actually gone, with only small rusty remnants left of the original parts. Here is a breakdown of the issues:

First, this is a commercially rebuilt carb, and is not the original carb off your car. This carb could never have run with the setup the way it was, even if it was not corroded beyond usable condition.

Extreme corrosion, resulting in all hardware and parts being seized and rusted in place
Inoperable accel pump - collapsed
Seized choke pulloff - inoperable
Plugged fuel filter
Inlet fitting double-gasketed
Secondary fuel feed tubes removed from airhorn and installed in incorrect, blind-hole locations - no secondary fuel flow through carb
Incorrect float installed
Extreme low float level
Extreme low APT
Power piston jammed in bore - inoperable
Power piston corroded away - destroyed
Power piston spring corroded away - destroyed
Choke housing fast idle cam pivot casting corroded away - housing destroyed
Float clip installed backwards, jamming needle in seat

In addition to the base fee, this carb will need the following items as a minimum.

Choke housing with components
Misc. Hardware
Power piston
Power piston spring
Acid dip fee - materials

The carb is in the hot-tank right now, and will hit the acid bath next in order to get some of the rust and zinc oxide off the component parts.

I'll keep you posted on results...

Lars







........................................ ........................................ ...............


Now, after having read that, I thought all was lost, but I'm happy to say the carb arrived today with a clean bill of health. A detailed report showed the carb to be working perfectly and now I'm just waiting for the snow to finally melt so I can start to put some mileage on the car this summer. I am forever indebted to Lars for his help in resurrecting another quadrajet, and highly recommend his services to anyone here who may be having carb issues.

Mooser

I was getting ready to send my "box-o-carb" down a couple of years back but with Lars' help (emails, post, papers, more emails, etc) actually managed to get it running and tuned to actually run and function properly (choke, secondaries etc).
I'm still temped to send it off just to see how close I ended up (I need to find better ways to spend my days)

The old distributor might be another story....
M

7T1vette

Uhhh......Lars works on dizzys, too....

GreenDream

Lars has saved a lot of days..

briankeery

U bet, the service was listed on his Technical Information Bulletin that he sends out when you initially request information.

theblackvette

I would love to see before and after pics! Congrats on getting it rebuilt.

Roco71

Lars helped me a couple of years in selecting a "good" rebuild candidate from several photos that I emailed him and then helped me with the rebuild. Great guy that has more knowledge than I can comprehend.

briankeery

Ya know I'm kicking myself buddy that I didn't take any before........but actually the initial overall appearance didn't look too bad. I've seen much worse for sale at swap meets - even Lars' initial inspection stated " original carb in good condition". Obviously the internals told a different story. Lars mentioned that with the acid dip I might loose some of the finish, but truly she looks good my friend.
I'll try and post up some pics later today, just got back into town, work had me in Windsor for the past few days.

theblackvette

Oh that is too bad on the pre pics. On anotger note I am getting mine rebuilt by another rebuilder. Mine was in ugly shape and shiuld be done soon looking great. I should have pics and will present when I get it.

wyocat

YES.. And he saved my day when he rebuilt my distributor. My 68 327-350HP has 76,000 miles on it. Distributor was original except for an electronic conversion. I read in one of Lars's papers that many carb problems are really distributor problems... since I had just rebuilt my Holley and the car ran ok, but didn't idle the way I thought it should. I sent to Lars... I was surprised at all that was wrong with it. When I got it back... WHAT A DIFFERENCE, the little 327 WOKE UP! Car runs so much smother and performs so well..

EVERY DISTRIBUTOR SHOULD HAVE THE LARS TREATMENT!

SB64

Does he suggest sending the dist. with the carb or is that just an option, or do you ask him.Planning to send the carb to him soon. Was not sure about the dist???
R

dan1495

Lars rebuilt the original carb on my 72 last year. It runs flawlessly and he is great about communicating during the process.

Deron

I can't say enough about the guy. He rebuilt and tuned the Quadrajet in my 73 6 years ago. It has operated flawlessly ever since. I sing his praises anytime I get the chance!

sullyman56

Lars rebuilt the original Q-jet on my 77 L48 and did a fantastic job. Can't say enough good about him and the quality of his work.

briankeery

The finished product......








Finish will be fine for my needs........

doorgunner

"I hope my wife doesn't catch me looking right now!"

(She'd probably rather catch me looking at the S.I. "swimsuit" edition, rather than another carb by Lars!)

lars

Brian -
Your secondary airvalve baffle has been smashed during shipment - remove it, straighten it out, and re-install it.

Also, in the last photo, are you holding the airvalve open with your finger for the photos, or is the airvalve sticking open...? I hope you're holding it open...

I do wish I had taken a few shots if that thing prior to the rebuild - it was shocking enough that people stopping by the workshop were actually commenting on it and asking what I intended to do with "that parts carb." It still doesn't look good enough to be bragging about, but at least it was running well on the test stand.

Thank you all for kind comments and words - always appreciated.

Lars

briankeery

Hey Lars,


thanks for catching the baffle, I'll look at it this afternoon. Also, yes I was holding the airvalve open just to take the picture........everything is snapping back just as it should. I'll send you an update in 3 or 4 weeks once all this dam snow leaves and I can get the car out.

texaswilkins

About two years ago I sent him two that I hoped would make one good one. Turns out mine were in pretty poor shape too and became donor parts that hopefully helped someone else. He had a spare that still works nicely on my car.

Bill